The new desktop application for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS 10.6 or 10.7 allows people to drag and drop files as if they were transferring files to a local hard drive.

Cloud Drive, which launched last year, gives people tiered levels starting with 5 gigabytes of free storage, or enough to hold about 1,000 songs or 2,000 photos. Services are then available for $20 to $100 per year depending on disk space, maxing out at 1,000 gigabytes.

Up to eight devices can access the service, and music files purchased and stored by Amazon don't count toward a gigabyte limit.

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Google last week launched Google Drive, a similar service for storing and sharing files online which also offers 5GB of free capacity, which is cheaper than the popular service Dropbox. With the desktop application, Amazon's service makes Cloud Drive a bit easier to use and better integrated with a computer than its browser-based version.

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Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld.
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